


Mountaintop Diplomacy

by dazzler



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: M/M, Pining, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Sex In A Cave, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 04:21:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15307377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dazzler/pseuds/dazzler
Summary: Well, the man spared no consideration for decorum-- Thancred did appreciate that in a fellow.





	Mountaintop Diplomacy

**Author's Note:**

> i've been busy with school and work and stuff so this has been my stress relief fic. its basically just smut. huge thank you to my partner for the beta!!

The further from Gyr Albania Thancred travelled, the worse the weather became. He had hoped to rely on his silver tongue (and a little Scion gold) to secure lodgings during his journey, but as evening fell and conditions became unnavigable, he found himself far from any settlement. A sudden and violent storm swept over the mountainside, shaking the very foundations of the large, gnarled trees and sending great clouds of dust into the air. 

Thankfully, he passed by a cave shortly before it started hailing crystals the size of spriggans, and he doubled back to seek shelter within. The mouth of the cave was taller than it was wide, a jagged opening in the side of the grey mountain rock, and the floor looked smooth enough in places to sleep on. 

It was also, as it turned out, already occupied. Thancred went no more than a few fulms in and found a spear pointed straight at his chest. 

“Leave,” said its owner in a flat voice, “or I run you through.”

Thancred reacted on instinct, knocking the spear away, his knives already drawn. The Elezen man moved with frightening speed, spear arcing to try and catch Thancred in the side. Thancred ducked to avoid it. Only when the man pinned him to the wall did he finally recognize him. 

Thancred had seen him twice before: once at the peace conference in Nidhogg’s thrall, and once in a likeness that Aymeric carried when the two of them traveled the Dravanian Forelands together. It depicted a young, serious-looking soldier in chain-mail, his hair tied in a small ponytail. The miniature painting, kept inside a gilt frame and showed to him in a quiet moment beside the campfire, seemed a pale imitation of the man himself. 

“Estinien?” 

He towered a fulm above Thancred. His hair hung in a wild tangle over his shoulders and his eyes, impossibly dark and angry, kept Thancred pinned against the wall even as he lowered the spear. “Who the hells are you?” he growled. 

Thancred put up his hands, charting possible escape routes in his head. “Easy, my dear fellow. I am Thancred, a friend of Patient’s.”

Estinien took a step back, but did not turn away. Behind him, Thancred noticed armor leaning against the rocks to dry. The shirt Estinien had on beneath was worn and too small. He did his best not to stare. 

“What are you doing here?” Estinien asked. 

“I travel on behalf of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Alphinaud-- you know him, yes?-- was waylaid on his journey to Garlemald. I’m to fetch him.”

“I got a letter from him,” said Estinien. “The odd animal that follows him around brought it to me. Fury knows why, but the ship went down, and he needs my help.”

A sharp crack of thunder made them both jump. 

“We’ve no choice but to wait out this storm,” said Thancred. “Do you have enough supplies to last ‘til morning?” 

Estinien walked over to prop the spear up next to his armor. “If you're proposing we travel together to find the boy, I should let you know I work alone.” 

“I--” Thancred’s stomach interrupted by growling audibly. He’d been hoping to reach one of the border towns before the storm hit and find something to eat there. 

Estinien rolled his eyes and went to retrieve some dried meat and small red fruits from his bag, which he offered to Thancred on an open palm. Thancred took them, feeling a bit like a wild animal being lured. 

“Thank you, Estinien,” he said, but was met with silence.

Thancred spread out his bedroll and sat down, staring up at the stalactites and listening to the wind howl outside. Ripping off a chunk of dried meat with his teeth, he chewed slowly, savoring the only food he’d eaten all day. 

He knew little of Estinien besides that he’d been a vessel for Nidhogg, and that he and Aymeric were close. Alphinaud regarded him as an older brother of sorts. So far, he didn’t seem the conversational type, but that did not deter Thancred from wanting to learn more of his companion for the night. He finished off the fruit and cleared his throat. 

“Aymeric-- pardon me, Lord Aymeric and I met when I escorted him to parley with the Vath. He told me you’ve known each other ten years.”

Estinien had been staring out the cave entrance with his arms crossed, watching the storm. At the mention of Aymeric’s name, he stiffened, his eyes darting to Thancred’s and then away. 

“He’s my--” He paused to consider. “--my oldest friend.”

“Have you seen him of late?” Thancred asked. 

“I’ve visited twice since I left. He still leaves the window open for me.” Estinien hid a smile by looking at the ground. “Damn fool is going to be burgled. Or assassinated.”

Thancred laughed. “I daresay he misses you terribly. You should have seen him at the Battle of Ala Mhigo, when the scouts reported sightings of a man in dragoon’s armor.”

“He had much to do.”

“I’m certain he would have made time.” Thancred gave him an encouraging smile, but Estinien had gone curiously still. 

“He told me he bedded a friend of Patient’s shortly after the end of the war.” He spoke low, but Thancred could hear the catch in his voice. Not jealousy, not exactly. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

Well, the man spared no consideration for decorum-- Thancred did appreciate that in a fellow. 

“Yes,” he said. “‘Twas I.”

To that, Estinien gave no answer. 

  
  
  
  


Night fell. Neither of them managed to find enough dry wood for a fire, so they ended up seated shoulder-to-shoulder against the cave wall, damp and shivering. The bare skin of Estinien’s arm was cold and prickled with gooseflesh where it touched Thancred’s. 

“S-surely you must be used to this, as an Ishgardian?” Thancred asked, his teeth clicking. 

Estinien scowled. “It’s only been five years.”

“Seven, I’m afraid, but I stopped being affected by the heat after three moons in Ul’dah. I’m from Sharlayan, you see.” Which  _ was  _ true, after a fashion. If his actual tolerance came from growing up on the sun-bleached docks of Limsa... he did not feel the need to mention it. 

“A man of learning,” said Estinien, his lip curled. “Last one I met who studied there was just as useless.” 

“Pardon me?”

“One of Aymeric’s cohort. Some fool obsessed with bringing Sharlayan astrology to Ishgard.” Estinien shrugged. “It is beyond my ken.”

“Your Aymeric seems well-learned,” said Thancred.

“He’s not mine.” 

“Right,” said Thancred. 

“You don’t believe me.” 

“The way he spoke of you was… revealing.” 

“He spoke of me,” Estinien repeated. “Was this before or after you fucked?” 

“Before, if you must know,” said Thancred, somewhat irritably. 

“Tell me what happened.” 

Thancred blanched. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 

Estinien let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, leaning back against the cave wall. “I wish to know what he was like with you. Go on. Spare no detail.”

Though the gale continued outside, the air in the cave was still and, in Thancred’s opinion, growing more humid with each passing minute. 

“Are you sure?” he asked. 

Estinien cracked an eye open and tilted his head toward Thancred in a way that he would have described with any other person as ‘coy.’ 

“Indulge me,” he said. 

Thancred’s mouth went a little dry.

“If you insist,” he said, swallowing. “We were staying in Tailfeather to prepare for the journey back to Ishgard.”

The hunters had left them alone in the hut together. Thancred recalled Aymeric undressing, seeing the smooth skin of his shoulders and quickly turning away. 

“We’d been travelling for several nights, and I knew he wanted me. He asked me if I had a lover and I said no.” A drop of rainwater from his still-damp hair rolled down his back, tickling between his shoulder blades. He shifted a little. 

“And what did he tell you?”

“He told me he was in love with you, but that his affections remained unreciprocated.” 

Estinien’s hands twitched in his lap. 

“I said I took no issue with it, so he led me to the bed and went on about how handsome I was. Charming as you please.” 

After the Praetorium, Thancred had no longer been quite so comfortable sharing his body with others. The casual flings he used to enjoy became confusing and upsetting, and his nights usually ended with a polite dismissal before anything happened.

It was Aymeric’s sweet words and tender manner that had swayed him. Seeing the longing plain on Estinien’s face, Thancred thought the man probably understood that better than anyone. 

“He undressed us both and we began touching each other.”

“How did he look?”

“Perfect, as well you know. Ah-- he had some fresh scars on his side, but when I inquired he told me not to worry.” 

Estinien grimaced. “Aye, he would have.” 

“I took care with him regardless.” 

_ Though not half as much as he did with me _ . Here he omitted where Aymeric stroked his thighs and said there was naught to fear from him, where Aymeric kissed him until his breath grew short and he forgot to be afraid. 

“It had been a while. By the time he put his mouth on me, I was close.” Thinking back on it-- the heat of Aymeric’s tongue, his soft curls under Thancred’s hands, gods, that hungry look focused on him with such a singular intensity-- Thancred felt his cock begin to swell beneath his clothes.

“Did you come in his mouth?” Even in the darkness, Thancred could see Estinien blushing. 

“I could hardly help myself.” 

“And you returned his attentions?” Estinien asked, his voice hoarse. 

“Of course.” On his knees, letting Aymeric fuck his mouth until his jaw ached and he was half-hard again, until Aymeric cried out and Thancred was afraid they might be heard--

Estinien grabbed him tightly by the upper arm, startling him. His eyes were bright, his breathing quick and shallow. “If I asked you to-- to show me--”  

Thancred pushed himself off the wall and practically fell into Estinien’s lap, reaching up to cradle Estinien’s warm face in his hands. His lips were not as soft as Aymeric’s and he bit when he kissed. Thancred moaned and Estinien answered him with a harsh, desperate noise, dragging him closer. 

“Whatever you want,” said Thancred. “Lovely Estinien.”

His sleeping mat had room for only one. Thancred bade Estinien to sit. He made quite a picture-- long legs spread just slightly, shirt rucked up over his stomach, his cheeks dark with color. Thancred entertained a fleeting fancy, wishing he could paint in order to send the scene back to Aymeric. Estinien glared up at him, cutting his admiration short.

“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?”

He’d bedded impatient lovers before, men who wanted him gone before morning, who wanted to take from him and send him on his way. This, Thancred thought, spoke to something else. 

“Would you enjoy that?” he asked. “Me watching you.” 

“No,” said Estinien through his teeth.  

Thancred knelt between Estinien’s legs and put a hand on his knee. “Naught to be afraid of in telling me so,” he said. 

He took his time, fondling him through the soaked fabric of his smallclothes, massaging his thumb over the area of Estinien’s clit. He was rewarded with a groan, Estinien’s thighs crushing his hand. 

Thancred tugged the cloth down and lowered his head to put his lips on bare skin, the taste of salt and warmth filling his mouth. His own cock responded with a painfully insistent throb. He looked up to see Estinien biting his own palm. 

“Is this alright?” he asked, squeezing Estinien’s thigh. 

Estinien let out an irritated huff and rolled his hips, grinding against Thancred’s face. Thancred pressed back, flattening his tongue and moving lower until it teased his entrance, and Estinien spat out a curse. Slick dripped down Thancred’s chin as he kissed and sucked at Estinien’s swollen clit, eventually pushing into him with two fingers. 

“Ah--ah, fuck--” Estinien grabbed a handful of Thancred’s hair, pulled. “More--”

“Does it feel good?” Thancred asked. He hooked his fingers, stroking roughly while Estinien’s hips jerked up into the touch. 

“No,” he said, clutching at Thancred’s shoulders, “no, come here and fuck me--” 

Thancred unlaced the front of his trousers and took his cock in hand. He rubbed the head over Estinien’s cunt. Estinien rocked up against it with a noise of frustration. He had a flush spreading down his neck and across his chest, and his long legs wrapped around Thancred’s hips, urging him on.

He slid inside with a groan. Their bodies were pressed flush together, Estinien’s chest heaving against his. Gods, he was tight. His hands splayed over Estinien’s breasts as he fucked him, rolling his nipples between his fingers until they were stiff and oversensitive and Estinien gasped in his ear.

“Thancred,” he breathed, putting his arms around Thancred’s neck, and Thancred kissed him, overwhelmed. 

When he felt Estinien begin to tighten around his cock, he pulled out, watching him shudder through his climax. It only took Thancred a few strokes of his hand before he was coming hard over Estinien’s belly, while Estinien looked up at him with dark eyes. 

Afterward, he wiped them both off and adjusted his clothes, smoothing his hair back into place. 

“‘Tis cold,” Estinien announced from where he still lay naked on the bedroll. 

Thancred got down beside him and tucked his head beneath Estinien’s chin.

“There’s a village a half a day’s travel from the base of the mountain,” Estinien said, folding his long arms around him. “They see a fair amount of airship traffic, so it might prove useful to investigate.”

Thancred nodded sleepily into his collarbone, and together they waited for the storm to pass.

 


End file.
